Systems and methods for virtual interaction

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, at least one processor may receive a first user input and identify one or more first keywords from the first user input to determine one or more previously recorded outputs corresponding to the first keywords. The previously recorded outputs may correspond to a virtual character, such as a celebrity. Further, the at least one processor may select one of the determined previously recorded outputs and output the selected previously recorded output corresponding to the virtual character. The at least one processor may also identify one or more second keywords from at least the first user input, temporarily store the second keywords in memory in association with at least one portion of the user input, receive a second user input, and determine another previously recorded output based at least in part on the temporarily stored keywords associated with the first user input.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/466,520, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,716,674, filed on Aug. 22,2014, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The interaction between celebrities and fans may include various formsof communication, such as face-to-face encounters or meetings, fan mail,social media, electronic mail and the like. However, celebrities maygenerally find it difficult to interact with fans due to their busyschedules, the impracticable task of responding to every singlecommunication they receive within a reasonable amount of time, or otherreasons. In a similar regard, the fans may find the process andexperience of interacting with celebrities equally challenging andfrustrating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the disclosure provides a method that comprises receiving,using at least one processor, a first user input and identifying, usingthe at least one processor, one or more first keywords from the firstuser input in order to determine one or more previously recorded outputscorresponding to the one or more first keywords. The previously recordedoutputs may correspond to a virtual character, such as a celebrity.Further, the method comprises selecting, using the at least oneprocessor, one of the determined previously recorded outputs, andoutputting the selected previously recorded output corresponding to thevirtual character. Moreover, the method further comprises identifying,using the at least one processor, one or more second keywords from atleast the first user input, temporarily storing the one or more secondkeywords in association with at least one portion of the user input,receiving a second user input, and determining, using the at least oneprocessor, another previously recorded output based at least in part onthe temporarily stored keywords associated with the first user input.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a system comprising a memoryand at least one processor coupled to the memory. The at least oneprocessor is configured to receive a first user input and identify oneor more first keywords from the first user input to determine one ormore previously recorded outputs corresponding to the one or more firstkeywords. The previously recorded outputs correspond to a virtualcharacter, such as a celebrity. Further, the at least one processor isconfigured to select one of the determined previously recorded outputsand output the selected previously recorded output corresponding to thevirtual character. Moreover, the at least one processor is configured toidentify one or more second keywords from at least the first user input,temporarily store the one or more second keywords in memory inassociation with at least one portion of the first user input, receive asecond user input, and determine another previously recorded outputbased at least in part on the temporarily stored keywords associatedwith the first user input.

A further aspect of the disclosure provides a non-transitory, tangiblecomputer-readable medium on which instructions are stored, theinstructions when executed by at least one processor performs a method,the method comprising receiving a first user input and identifying oneor more first keywords from the first user input in order to determineone or more previously recorded outputs corresponding to the one or morefirst keywords. The previously recorded outputs may correspond to avirtual character, such as a celebrity. Further, the method comprisesselecting one of the determined previously recorded outputs, andoutputting the selected previously recorded output corresponding to thevirtual character. Moreover, the method further comprises identifyingone or more second keywords from at least the first user input,temporarily storing the one or more second keywords in association withat least one portion of the user input, receiving a second user input,and determining another previously recorded output based at least inpart on the temporarily stored keywords associated with the first userinput.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a system diagram in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an example screenshot of an interactive interface inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is another example screenshot of an interactive interface inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an example dialogue diagram in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a further example screenshot of an interactive sessioninvolving two celebrities in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is another example dialogue diagram in accordance with aspects ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is an example flow diagram in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is directed to interacting with a virtualcharacter. For example, the virtual character may be any celebrity, suchas a celebrity chef, an actor, an actress, an athlete, a politician, acomedian, an animated character, a historical figure, a virtual speaker,a mascot, a brand, a business, etc. In one instance, a user may requestan interactive session with the celebrity using a computing device. Theuser may interact with the celebrity using various inputs, e.g., anatural language speech input, text input, etc. Based on the input, thecomputing device may provide a video, an audio and/or a text responsefrom the celebrity. During the interactive session, various keywords maybe stored in a memory device for subsequent use throughout the session.In another instance, the user may interact with two or more celebrities,and the two or more celebrities may interact with each other during thesame session.

In one aspect, a user may interact with a virtual character via naturallanguage speech. In that regard, the user may be able to communicate andinteract with the celebrity in a conversational manner. For example, theuser may ask a celebrity: “I like your books. How many books have youwritten in total?” Subsequently, the computing device may performanalysis on the speech input and associate the input with an appropriateresponse. In this example, the response may be a prerecorded video ofthe actual celebrity answering the user's question: “I've written atotal of four books and working on my fifth.” The video may beaccompanied by audio and/or displayable text.

In another aspect, a user may interact with a virtual character viawritten text. The user may use an input component of a computing deviceto communicate with the celebrity using written words. For instance, theinput component may be a keyboard, or an input interface of a mobilecomputing device, e.g., smartphone, tablet, etc. Similar to the exampleabove, the user may ask a celebrity a question about the number of booksthe celebrity has written by inputting the question as text. Inresponse, the computing device may provide a video, an audio, and/or atext response to the user.

The responses to user input may be previously recorded by a virtualcharacter, such as a celebrity, and stored in a memory device. Forexample, a celebrity, in person, may record various answers to questionsthat a user may likely ask. The recorded answers may be in the form ofvideo, audio, text, etc. These answers may also be stored in a memorydevice, and each of the answers may be associated with a type ofquestion, or alternatively, may be associated with a specific question.The answers may be continually updated based on various factors, e.g.,the answer is no longer relevant, etc. If an answer cannot be associatedwith the question, then the computing device may prompt the user toeither clarify or ask the question in a different manner.

In another aspect, various keywords during the course of an interactivesession between a user and a virtual character may also be identifiedand stored in at least one memory. For instance, the keywords may becertain pronouns associated with certain nouns. In this regard, when theuser uses a pronoun to refer to a noun (rather than the noun itself),the computing device may recognize the user's reference to the noun inorder to maintain the conversational interaction and consistency betweenthe user and the celebrity.

In yet another aspect, a user may virtually interact with more than onevirtual character during the same session, e.g., multiple celebrities,multiple athletes, multiple politicians, etc. For example, the user mayinitiate an interactive session with three different athletes. The threeathletes may be associated with one particular sports team. Thus, theuser may not only interact with all three athletes, but the athletes mayinteract among themselves.

The above-described features allow a user to virtually interact with oneor more virtual characters in a conversational manner, as if the user isactually speaking to the celebrity in person. In that regard, the user'sinteraction with the one or more celebrities.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure. The system 100 may include a plurality of computingdevices, e.g., computing device(s) 110, server computing device 120,mobile computing device 130, smartphone 140, tablet computing device150, and storage device 160 connected to network 170. For example, thecomputing device 110 may be a desktop computer intended for use by auser and include a plurality of components associated with a desktopcomputer, such as one or more processors 112, memory 114, display 120,and interface 122. In another example, the mobile computing device 130may be a laptop and also include components similar to the computingdevice 110. The server computing device 120 may also include at leastone or more processors, memory, and an interface and may be configuredto communicate with at least one of the computing device 110, the mobilecomputing device 130, the smartphone 140, the tablet computing device150 and the storage device 160. As shown by the cascaded blocks, theremay be more than one of each device connected to the network 170.

Processor 112 may instruct the components of computing device 110 toperform tasks based on the processing of various types of information,such as instructions 116 and/or data 118 stored in the memory 114. Theprocessor 112 may be hardware that performs one or more operations,e.g., adding, subtracting, comparing numbers, jumping from one programto a second program, input/output operations, etc. By way of exampleonly, one or more control units (not shown) coupled to an arithmeticlogic unit (ALU) (not shown) and memory 114 may direct the computingdevice 110 to carry out program instructions 116 stored in memory 114 ata particular clock rate. The processor 112 may be any standardprocessor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), or may be adedicated processor, such as an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). While one processorblock is shown, the computing device 110 may also include multipleprocessors coupled in parallel.

Memory 114 stores information accessible by processor 112 includinginstructions 116 for execution by the processor 112 and data 118 whichis retrieved, manipulated or stored by the processor 112. The memory 114may be of any type capable of storing information accessible by theprocessor, such as a hard-drive, ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, write-capable,read-only, or the like.

The instructions 116 may include any set of instructions to be executeddirectly (such as machine code) or indirectly (such as scripts) by theprocessor 112. In that regard, the terms “instructions,” “steps” and“programs” may be used interchangeably herein.

By way of example only, the instructions 116 may include at least a setof executable instructions to virtually interact with a celebrity, suchas a celebrity, and a set of instructions to perform analysis on userinput, e.g., natural language speech, text, etc. For instance, a set ofinstructions that perform analysis on user input may include speechrecognition instructions. As will be further discussed in the examplesbelow, when a user requests to interact with the celebrity, theexecutable instructions may allow the processor 112 and other hardwarecomponents of computing devices 110 to receive the user input, performanalysis thereon, and associate one or more celebrity responses to theuser input.

Data 118 may be retrieved, stored or modified by processor 112 inaccordance with the instructions 116. The data 118 may be stored as acollection of data. For instance, although the invention is not limitedby any particular data structure, the data 118 may be stored in computerregisters, in a relational database as a table having a plurality ofdifferent fields and records, such as an XML. The data 118 may also beformatted in any computer readable format such as, but not limited to,binary values, ASCII or EBCDIC (Extended Binary-Coded DecimalInterchange Code). Moreover, any information sufficient to identify therelevant data may be stored, such as descriptive text, proprietarycodes, pointers, or information which is used by a function to calculatethe relevant data.

As an example, the data 118 may include video, audio, text, and othertypes of recorded responses of characters, such as real-lifecelebrities, answering various questions that a user may likely ask. Inone instance, a video file (which may be compressed) of a celebrityreciting, “I have two dogs and three cats,” may be stored as data 118 inmemory 114, which may be associated with a questions such as, “How manypets do you have?” The data 118 may include numerous responses and theseresponses are not limited to video, audio, or text. The responses mayinclude any type of data that is capable of being retrieved, stored ormodified by one or more processors of any computing device.

The display 120 may be any type of device capable of communicating datato a user. For example, the display 120 may be a liquid-crystal display(LCD) screen, a plasma screen, etc. The display 270 may provide varioustypes of information to the user, such as visual representations ofcelebrities (e.g., video, images), audio, text outputs, etc.

Interface 122 may be a device, port, or a connection that allows a userto communicate with computing device 110. For instance, the interface122 may include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, touch-sensitivescreen, microphone, camera, etc. The interface 122 may also include oneor more input/output ports. The input/output ports may include any typeof data port, such as a universal serial bus (USB) drive, CD/DVD drive,zip drive, SD/MMC card reader, etc., and may be compatible with any typeof user interface.

According to one aspect, a user may input information and/or data usingthe interface 122. Subsequently, the computing device 110 may receiveand process the information to provide the user with an interactiveexperience with one or more celebrities. For example, the user may ask acelebrity a question via at least a camera and a microphone. Theprocessor 112 may analyze the natural language speech input to identifykeywords so that an appropriate output response can be determined. Inanother example, the user may also input information and/or data via aninteractive interface by, for example, entering text into a text box, orselecting pre-formulated questions to ask the celebrity (as will befurther discussed below).

Similar to the computing device 110, the server computing device 120 mayalso include at least one or more processors, memory, and an interface.The server computing device 120 may be rack mounted on a networkequipment rack and/or located in a data center. Using the network 170,the server computing device 120 may serve the requests of programsexecuted on computing device 110, mobile computing device 130,smartphone 140, tablet computing device 150, and storage device 160.

Mobile devices, such as mobile computing device 130, smartphone 140, andtablet computing device 150, may have similar components and function tothe computing device 110, e.g., processor, memory, input/outputcapabilities, etc.

For example, the mobile computing device 130 may be any type of devicewith computing capability and connectivity to a network. For example,the mobile computing device 130 may be a laptop, smartphone, PDA, tabletcomputer, etc. The mobile computing device 130 may also have one or moreprocessors, memory, user interfaces, network connection hardware, andother types of components associated with a mobile computing device. Inthat regard, the mobile computing device may be able to connect tonetwork 170 via a wired or a wireless connection and communicate withother components connected to the network 170.

The smartphone 140 may be a mobile phone with computing capability andnetwork connectivity. For example, the smartphone 40 may include one ormore processors, memory, user interfaces, a camera, image sensors, aglobal positioning system (GPS), accelerator, temperature sensors, etc.Similar to the computing device 110, the smartphone 140 may beconfigured to execute computer instructions, applications, programs, andthe like. In one instance, a user using the smartphone 140 may be ableto download via network 170 an application, such as an application tohave an interactive session with a celebrity.

The tablet computing device 150 may include all components typicallypresent on a tablet computer including a touchscreen display, sensors,microphone, camera, speakers, etc. For example, the tablet computer mayexecute computer instructions, applications, or programs using at leastone of one or more processors, memory, and other processing hardware.The tablet computing device may also be configured to connect to anetwork, such as network 170, via network connection hardware.

The storage device 160 may be a component configured to store a largequantity of data. For example, the storage device 160 may be acollection of same or different storage components, or a mixedcollection of storage components, such as ROM, RAM, hard-drives,solid-state drives, removable drives, network storage, virtual memory,multi-leveled cache, registers, etc. In addition, the storage device 160may be configured so that it can be accessed by at least the servercomputing device 120 to provide data to various components connected tothe network 170.

By way of example only, the storage device 160 may store theabove-described video, audio, text, as well as other types of previouslyrecorded (or pre-recorded) responses of real-life celebrities answeringvarious questions that a fan may likely ask. In this regard, thecomputing device 110 may provide in some instances the video responses,audio responses, text responses, and other types of responses to thecomputing device 110 via network 170. In another example, the storagedevice 160 may be updated, for example, to add new data (e.g., new videoresponses, new audio responses, new text responses, etc.) based on thenumerous interactive interactions and user inputs detected and analyzedover time. For example, if the user asks a question for which anappropriate response is identified by at least the computing device 110or server computing device 120, the computing device 110 or the servercomputing device 120 may store and flag this question when newpre-recorded responses for the question is provided, stored, andupdated.

In addition, the storage device 160 may store various keywords that maybe used during the course of an interactive session between a celebrityand a user. For instance, the keywords may be one or more pronounsassociated with nouns that may be used by the user. The one or morepronouns may be “I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “that,” etc. In thisregard, when the user uses a particular keyword, e.g., a pronoun, torefer to an associated noun, a computing device (e.g., the computingdevice 110, server computing device 120) may recognize the user'sreference to the associated noun in order to maintain the conversationalinteraction and consistency between the user and the celebrity. Forexample, a user may ask a celebrity, “Didn't you recently take a trip toFrance?” The keywords associated with “a trip” or “France” may be apronoun, “it,” or “that.” These keywords and associated nouns (or anyportion of the user input) may be temporarily stored in cache to belater identified in subsequent questions and conversations. As such,when the user subsequently asks the celebrity “How was it?” thecomputing device 110, for example, identifies the term “it” to mean the“trip” or “France.” It should be understood that the keywords mayinclude be any part of speech that can be associated with one or moreportions of the user input.

The network 170 may be any type of network, wired or wireless,configured to facilitate the communication and transmission of data,instructions, etc. from one network component to a second networkcomponent. For example, the network 170 may be a local area network(LAN) based on at least Ethernet or other IEEE 802.03 LAN technologies,Wi-Fi based on at least IEEE 802.11 standards, wide area network (WAN),virtual private network (VPN), global area network (GAN), or anycombination thereof. As such, the computing device 110, mobile computingdevice 130, smartphone 140, and/or tablet computing device 150 mayconnect to and communicate with the server computing device 120 via thenetwork 170.

While the computing device 110 may be a desktop computer in theabove-described examples, any of the computing devices shown in FIG. 1may be any device capable of processing instructions and transmittingdata to and from humans, including wireless phones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), laptop computers, Bluetooth headsets, wearablecomputing devices, etc.

Further, although the processor 112, memory 114, display 120 andinterface 122 are functionally illustrated in FIG. 1 within the sameblock, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art thatthe processor 112, memory 114, display 120 or interface 122 may actuallycomprise multiple processors, memories, displays or interfaces that mayor may not be stored within the same physical housing. For example, someor all of the instructions 116 and data 118 may be stored on removableCD-ROM and others within a read-only computer chip, or may be stored ina location physically remote from, yet still accessible by, theprocessor 112. Similarly, as noted above, the processor 112 may actuallycomprise a collection of processors which may or may not operate inparallel.

Further to the system and operations thereof described above andillustrated in FIG. 1, various operations will now be described below.The following operations are not required to be performed in aparticular or precise order. Rather, the various steps may be performedin a different order, different combinations, or simultaneously, and oneor more steps may also be added or omitted.

FIG. 2 is an example screenshot 200 of an interactive interface 202 inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure. For example, a user may wantto virtually interact with a virtual character. As noted above, thevirtual character may be any celebrity, sports figure, historicalfigure, animated character, mascot, a business, a brand, a tour guide,etc. Here, the virtual character may be celebrity chef, Fabio Viviani.Initially, the user may start a new interactive session with thecelebrity by opening up an interactive interface, via a graphical userinterface (GUI) or a web browser interface associated with the newinteractive session, on a computing device, e.g., computing device 110,mobile computing device 130, smartphone 140, or tablet computing device150.

By way of the example screenshot 200 depicted in FIG. 2 only, theinteractive interface 202 includes a search field 210, a menu 220,options 222, start 224, and end 226. When the user initiates to interactwith at least one celebrity to interact, an image, video, or othervisual representations of the celebrity may be rendered to the user inbox 230. A dialogue box 232 (which may be accompanied by audio) may alsobe rendered to the user. In order to interact with the celebrity, theuser may use natural language speech input 240 or text input 250.

In one aspect, a user may open the interactive interface 202 on acomputing device. Subsequently, the user may search for a celebrity inthe search field 210 using one or more search terms, such as“interactive session with Fabio Viviani,” “Fabio Viviani,” “Fabio chef,”etc. The one or more processors of the computing device may perform theassociation between the search terms and the correct celebrity data,which may be stored in the computing device's memory or a storage deviceconnected to the computing device within the same network. Once the userselects the celebrity, an interactive session between the user and thecelebrity may be initiated.

In the above-instance, the one or more processors of the computingdevice may render a visual representation of Fabio Viviani, himself, tothe user in box 230. As described above, this visual representation maybe a previously recorded video, an image, an animation, a generallythree-dimensional representation, a hologram, a simulation, etc. As anexample, a recorded video of Fabio Viviani may initially greet the userwith “How are you today? Nice to meet you.” in the dialogue box 232,which may also be rendered to the user. The greeting may be differentfor every interactive session. In an alternative instance, the user maybe the first to initiate the interactive session. In this instance, theuser may input, “How are you today? Nice to meet you.” The celebrity maythen respond to the user's input. The visual representation of FabioViviani in box 230 may continue to move while the user asks questions togive an appearance of real-time, live conversation (as opposed to theseries of outputted video responses freezing between questions). Forexample, the visual effect of the continuing movement may be provided bystitching video clips of non-verbal movement between the pre-recordedvideo responses, and looping the video clips of non-vernal movement asneeded to fill a time between outputting a first response and outputtinga second response. Non-verbal movements may include, for example,blinking, stretching, turning head, readjusting position, stroking hair,twiddling thumbs, or the like.

The user may interact with the celebrity using different types ofinputs. For example, the user may respond to Fabio Viviani's greetingusing either the natural language speech input 240 or the text input250, or both, provided by the interactive interface 202. As shown, theuser may drag a cursor 260 over to the microphone icon to enter thenatural language speech input 240. Alternatively, if the interactiveinterface 202 is configured to accommodate touch via a touch-screendisplay, the user may touch the microphone icon to input naturallanguage speech via a microphone coupled to the computing device. Theuser may also enter text input 250 via the depicted textbox via akeyboard, a keyboard interface, or a similar user input device. In thatregard, the user may respond, “I'm doing well. How are you? Is it truethat you do a lot of traveling in Europe?” by either speaking or typingit using various input interfaces. As will be further described below,the one or more processors of the computing device may perform analysison the user input to associate, for instance, a previously recordedvideo response to the input. Alternatively, the analysis may beperformed by the server computing devices 120, or any other computingdevice capable of performing such analysis.

While FIG. 2 depicts an interactive interface in a particularconfiguration, the layout of the interface is not limited thereto. Forexample, there may be more or fewer input fields on the interface. Inanother example, the entire conversation during the interactive sessionmay be displayed as text and/or rendered as audio via the interface.

In another aspect, the user may be provided with a set of previouslyformulated inputs that the user may select during the interactiveexperience.

FIG. 3 is another example screenshot 300 of the interactive interface202. In addition to providing the user with options to enter a naturallanguage speech input or text input, the interactive interface 202 mayalso provide pre-formulated inputs for the user to select. In oneexample, the user may press the options 222 icon on the interactiveinterface 202 to access the pre-formulated inputs. In other examples,these pre-formulated inputs may be automatically rendered to the user atthe beginning of the interactive session. These inputs may be unique toeach celebrity, or may also be more generalized to a certain subject.

As depicted, the one or more processors of the computing device mayrender one or more pre-formulated inputs 310, 320, 330, 340, 350selectable by the user. By way of example only, the pre-formulated input310 recites, “What was your most memorable experience as a contestant onthe cooking competition television show?” The pre-formulated input 320states, “What is your favorite dish to cook?” Further, thepre-formulated input 330 asks, “Do you have any pets?” In a similarmanner, the pre-formulated input 340 recites, “Have you written anybooks? If so, how many have you written?” The pre-formulated input 350asks, “What are some of your hobbies?” More or less of these formulatedinputs may be rendered to the user for the user to select as part of theinteractive experience. At any point during the interactive session, theuser may also revert to natural language speech input or text input, ormay use at least all three forms of input during the course of thesession.

The user may select the pre-formulated input 340 to ask, Fabio Viviani,whether he has written any books, and if so, how many books he haswritten. As such, the one or more processors of the computing device mayassociate an output to the input 340, such as a video response of FabioViviani answering “I've written a total of four books and working on myfifth,” which may be stored in at least the memory of the computingdevice or a storage device communicating with the computing device via anetwork. The response may be accompanied by audio and/or displayabletext.

FIG. 4 is an example dialogue diagram 400 between a celebrity 410 and auser 420 during an interactive session. In this example, the celebrity410 may initiate the conversation with “How are you today? Nice to meetyou,” at block 410. Subsequently, the user may respond, “I'm doing well.How are you? Is it true that you do a lot of traveling in Europe?” atblock 432 using a natural language speech input. At this point, the oneor more processors of the computing device providing the interactivesession with the celebrity receives and performs analysis on the userinput. The analysis may be used to determine which output, e.g., videoresponse, audio response, text response, is associated with the userinput. For instance, a previously recorded video response of thecelebrity 410 answering “Yes, I travel in Europe quite frequently,” maybe associated with the user input at block 432 and outputted to the userat block 434. In some instances, the celebrity's response associatedwith the user's question may be accompanied with a generalized questiondirected to the user in order to maintain a sense of conversation. Usingthe example above, the celebrity 410's response at block 434 may be“Yes, I travel in Europe quite frequently. How about yourself?”

The analysis of the user input may be based at least on theidentification of particular keywords, or combinations of keywords, ofthe user input. By way of the example user input above, terms such as“traveling,” “Europe,” “how,” and “you” may be the keywords used toidentify the appropriate pre-recorded video response. The processor 112of computing device 110, for instance, may identify “traveling” and“Europe” and match those keywords with a set of pre-recorded videoresponses, one of which is “Yes, I travel in Europe quite frequently.”Other responses may be “I recently did some traveling in Italy andFrance,” or “I love traveling in Europe.” The analysis of the user inputmay also be based on identifying synonyms associated with particular keywords. For example, the one or more processors may recognize that theterm “frozen yogurt” and “ice cream” are synonymous terms. In thatregard, both “frozen yogurt” and “ice cream” may be matched with thesame pre-recorded video responses.

The analysis may further include associating a match score for eachoutput in the selected set of outputs in order to determine which one ismost appropriate to provide to the user. In one example, the match scoremay range from 0 to 10, 10 being a perfect match. As described above,the processor 112 of the computing device 110 may identify that“traveling” and “Europe” are the keywords in the user input and mayinclude pre-recorded video responses of Fabio Viviani answering: (1)“Yes, I travel in Europe quite frequently,” (2) “I recently did sometraveling in Italy and France,” and (3) “I love traveling in Europe,” inthe set of outputs. The first output may have a match score of 9 becauseit includes an affirmative answer, “yes,” and references his frequencyof travel in Europe. The second output may have a match score of 8because it references his view about traveling in Europe. The thirdoutput may have a match score of 5 because it is a more generic answerabout traveling in two European countries. In that regard, the computingdevice 110 may output the first pre-recorded video response.

The interaction between the celebrity 410 and the user 420 may beconversational, as if the participants were communicating with eachother in person. For example, at block 436, the user 420 may continuehis or her conversation with the celebrity 410 by asking “Do you enjoyit?” As discussed above, one or more words of the user input at block432 may be associated with keywords. As an example, words such as“travelling” and “Europe” may be associated with pronouns like “it” and“that.” Thus, “it” and “that” may be the keywords associated with“travelling” and “Europe.” In that regard, when the user 420 refers to“it” at block 436, the one or more processors of the computing devicemay recognize that the user 420 is referring to “travelling” andsubsequently complete the analysis of the user input. Then, the one ormore processors may associate the response “Yes, I enjoy traveling verymuch. In fact, travelling is one of my hobbies if I am not cooking,” atblock 438.

At block 440, the user 420 may ask another question: “I love cookingmyself. Do you have a favorite dish?” An associated response may be avideo response of the celebrity 410 reciting, “In general, comfortfood,” at block 442. Subsequently, at block 444, the user 420 mayrespond, “My comfort food is macaroni and cheese.” And at block 446, thecomputing device may output the celebrity 410 responding, “I have agreat recipe for that!” In addition to the video response, a clickablelink may also be provided to the user, such that the user may be able toaccess the recipe via a webpage on the Internet. Also, as shown, theuser input may not always be a question. The computing device maynonetheless associate an output to a non-question input, such as the oneat block 444.

The interactive session may not be limited to just one celebrity. In analternative example, a user may virtually interact with two or morecelebrities via interactive interface 502. FIG. 5 is an examplescreenshot 500 of an interactive session interface with two differentcelebrities, celebrity 1 and celebrity 2. The interactive interface 502may be configured in a similar manner to the interactive interface 202depicted in FIG. 2. The visual representations of the celebrities may berendered to the user in boxes 520 and 530, such that box 520 and box 530are adjacent to one another. As depicted, the user may be greeted with agreeting box 510 informing the user that he or she can interact withcelebrity 1, celebrity 2, or both at the same time. The greeting box 510may also state that the celebrities may interact with each other basedon the type of question the user's input.

Similar to the interactive interface 202, the user may be able tointeract with celebrity 1 and celebrity 2 via natural language speechinput or text input, or both. And similar to the interactive interfacedepicted in FIG. 3, the user may be provided selectable pre-formulatedinputs. As will be further discussed below with respect to FIG. 6, theconversation may initially start with one celebrity. Subsequently, theuser may involve the other celebrity into the conversation, or in otherinstances, the first celebrity may involve the second celebrity into theconversation.

FIG. 6 is an example dialogue diagram 600 among two differentcelebrities and a user 610. In this example, celebrity 1 and celebrity 2may be movie actors that have worked together on the same film. The user610 may start off the conversation with a question to celebrity 1. Theuser may ask, “This is a question to celebrity 1, what is it likeworking with celebrity 2 on set?” at block 630. After performinganalysis on the question, the one or more processors of the computingdevice may determine that the question is intended for celebrity 1. Anoutput response may be associated with the user's question, such as “Ihad a good time on set with celebrity 2. I remember laughing a lot. Isthat how you recall it celebrity 2?” at block 632.

At block 632, the celebrity 1 is now involving celebrity 2 into theconversation. The one or more processors may recognize the output ofcelebrity 1 as input for celebrity 2 and determine an output responsebased on celebrity 1's question. The output response may be a previouslyrecorded video of celebrity 2 answering “Pretty much. I remember thatthe director was not too pleased” at block 634. In turn, the user mayuse natural language speech input to ask both celebrity 1 and celebrity2, “Do you both foresee working with each other in the future?” at block636. Subsequently, both celebrity 1 and celebrity 2 may simultaneouslyrespond “Absolutely!” at block 638.

While FIG. 6 depicts an example instance of celebrity 2 responding tocelebrity 1 during an interactive session among the celebrities and theuser, the interactive session may not be limited thereto. In anotherexample interactive session, the user may ask a particular questiondirected to celebrity 1 (which may or may not be the question in block630), and the one or more processors of the computing device may outputa response associated with that question for celebrity 1. Thereafter,the user may ask the same question, or a different question, tocelebrity 2, and the one or more processors of the computing device mayalso output a response associated with the question for celebrity 2.Subsequently, the user may then ask a different question to eithercelebrity 1 or celebrity 2. In this regard, the user may be able tointeract with celebrity 1 and celebrity 2 in a manner such that thereare no interruptions or breaks in between the user's questions andrespective responses (e.g., side conversations between celebrity 1 andcelebrity 2).

FIG. 7 is an example flow diagram 700 of an interactive session betweena celebrity and a user. By way of the example depicted in FIG. 4 only, acomputing device receives a first user input, where the first user inputincludes at least one of a natural language speech input and a textinput, at block 710. The user may ask a celebrity via natural languagespeech, “I love cooking. Do you have a favorite dish?” At block 720, thecomputing device may identify one or more first keywords from the firstuser input. In this instance, the keywords may be “favorite” and “dish.”Thus, “favorite” and “dish” may be used to determine one or morepreviously recorded outputs (e.g., responses) corresponding to the oneor more first keywords at block 730.

The one or more previously recorded outputs may correspond to a virtualcharacter, such as a celebrity. As such, the previously recorded outputscorresponding to the keywords “favorite” and “dish” identified at block720 may be “In general, comfort food,” “I really like Italian food,” and“Any spontaneous dish that I can whip up using ingredients that I findin my fridge at the time.” At block 740, the computing device may selectone of these previously recorded outputs. The selection may be based ona match score. As described above, the match score may range from 0 to10, 10 being a perfect match. The match score may be based in part onthe specificity of the response in relation to the question that wasasked. In that regard, the last output, “Any spontaneous dish that I canwhip up using ingredients that I find in my fridge at the time,” mayhave the highest match score because the output specifically addressesthe user's question in that the response refers to a dish (as opposed togeneral types of food, such as comfort food or Italian food).

At block 750, the computing device outputs the selected previouslyrecorded output corresponding to the virtual character, e.g., thecelebrity. Meanwhile, at block 760, the computing device identifies oneor more second keywords from at least the first user input. The one ormore second keywords may also be derived from the selected previouslyrecorded output. The second keywords may be keywords associated withpart of speech, such as a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, a verb, anadverb, a preposition, a conjunction, an interjection, etc. For example,one or more pronouns may be associated with certain nouns of the userinput. Pronouns such as “it” or “that” may be associated with the noun“dish.” Accordingly, the one or more second keywords may be temporarilystored in association with at least one portion of the user input, atblock 770. In other words, the user may use “it” in a subsequent inputand the computing device may determine that “it” refers to “dish.” Atblock 780, the computing device may receive a second user input, and atblock 790 determines another previously recorded output based at leastin part on the temporarily stored keywords associated with the firstuser input.

Although the invention herein has been described with reference toparticular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodimentsare merely illustrative of the principles and applications of thepresent invention. It is therefore to be understood that numerousmodifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that otherarrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method for simulating an interaction between auser and a character of interest, the method comprising, using one ormore processors: receiving from a user device, via a network connection,a first user input comprising a question or statement directed to thecharacter of interest; based on the first user input, identifying thecharacter of interest, from among a plurality of characters, as acharacter to which the first user input is intended to be directed;identifying one or more first keywords from the first user input;accessing a database of entries remote from the user device, each of theentries corresponding to a respective pre-recorded response of thecharacter of interest, at least some of the entries furthercorresponding to supplement content associated with the respectivepre-recorded response, each of the pre-recorded responses and thesupplemental content being stored in a network-coupled storage deviceremote from the user device; selecting, from the database, a first entrycorresponding to a pre-recorded response that is responsive to the firstuser input, wherein the selection of the first entry is based at leastin part on the one or more first keywords, and wherein selection of thefirst entry results in both (i) playback of the first pre-recordedresponse by the user device and (ii) providing the user device withaccess to the supplemental content associated with the firstpre-recorded response; automatically temporarily storing in anetwork-coupled memory remote from the user device one or more secondkeywords derived from at least one of the first user input and the firstpre-recorded response; receiving from the user device, via the networkconnection, a second user input comprising a question or statementdirected to the character of interest, wherein the second user input isreceived during the simulated interaction between the user and thecharacter of interest and after playback of the first recording;identifying one or more third keywords from the second user input; andselecting, from the database of entries, a second entry corresponding toa second pre-recorded response that is responsive to the second userinput, wherein the selection of the second entry results in playback ofthe second pre-recorded response by the user device, and wherein theselection of the second entry is made based at least in part on acombination of at least one of the second keywords and at least one ofthe third keywords.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein selection of thesecond entry is made based at least in part on at least one of thesecond keywords derived from the first user input.
 23. The method ofclaim 22, wherein the one or more second keywords comprises at least oneof the first keywords such that at least one second keyword is also afirst keyword, and wherein selection of the second entry is made basedat least in part on at least one of the second keywords that is also afirst keyword.
 24. The method of claim 21, wherein selection of thesecond entry is made based at least on one of the second keywordsderived from the first pre-recorded response.
 25. The method of claim21, further comprising automatically storing, at least a portion of thefirst user input, such that the stored portion of the first user inputcan be flagged with an entry that is stored in the database after thevirtual interaction session and that corresponds to a recording of thecharacter of interest.
 26. The method of claim 21, wherein eachpre-recorded response is one of a video recording, an audio recording,and text.
 27. The method of claim 21, further comprising, in response tothe first user input, assigning a score value to each of a plurality ofentries stored in the database, based on the relevance of each entry tothe first user input, wherein selection of the first entry is based onthe score value of the first entry.
 28. The method of claim 27, whereinthe score value of a given entry is based at least in part on aspecificity of the recording corresponding to the given entry.
 29. Themethod of claim 21, wherein the supplemental content is not apre-recorded response of the character of interest.
 30. A system forsimulating an interaction between a user and a character of interest,comprising: a network-coupled memory remote from a user device; and oneor more processors operatively coupled to the memory, wherein the one ormore processors are configured to: receive from the user device, via anetwork connection, a first user input comprising a question orstatement directed to a character of interest; based on the first userinput, identify the character of interest, from among a plurality ofcharacters, as a character to which the first user input is intended tobe directed; identify one or more first keywords from the first userinput; access a database of entries, each entry corresponding to arespective pre-recorded response of the character of interest, at leastsome of the entries further corresponding to supplement contentassociated with the respective pre-recorded response, each of thepre-recorded responses and the supplemental content being stored in anetwork-coupled storage device remote from the user device; select, fromthe database, a first entry corresponding to a pre-recorded responsethat is responsive to the first user input, wherein the selection of thefirst entry is based at least in part on the one or more first keywords,and wherein selection of the first entry results in both (i) playback ofthe first pre-recorded response by the user device and (ii) provide theuser device with access to the supplemental content associated with thefirst pre-recorded response; automatically temporarily store in anetwork-coupled memory remote from the user device one or more secondkeywords derived from at least one of the first user input and the firstpre-recorded response; receive from the user device, via the networkconnection, a second user input comprising a question or statementdirected to the character of interest, wherein the second user input isreceived during the simulated interaction between the user and thecharacter of interest and after playback of the first recording;identify one or more third keywords from the second user input; andselect, from the database of entries, a second entry corresponding to asecond pre-recorded response that is responsive to the second userinput, wherein the selection of the second entry results in playback ofthe second pre-recorded response by the user device, and wherein theselection of the second entry is made based at least in part on acombination of at least one of the second keywords and at least one ofthe third keywords.
 31. The system of claim 30, wherein selection of thesecond entry is made based at least in part on at least one of thesecond keywords derived from the first user input.
 32. The system ofclaim 31, wherein the one or more second keywords comprises at least oneof the first keywords such that at least one second keyword is also afirst keyword, and wherein selection of the second entry is made basedat least in part on at least one of the second keywords that is also afirst keyword.
 33. The system of claim 30, wherein selection of thesecond entry is made based at least on one of the second keywordsderived from the first pre-recorded response.
 34. The system of claim30, wherein the one or more processors are further configured toautomatically store at least a portion of the first user input, suchthat the stored portion of the first user input can be flagged with anentry that is stored in the database after the virtual interactionsession and that corresponds to a recording of the character ofinterest.
 35. The system of claim 30, wherein each pre-recorded responseis one of a video recording, an audio recording, and text.
 36. Thesystem of claim 30, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to, in response to the first user input, assign a score valueto each of a plurality of entries stored in the database, based on therelevance of each entry to the first user input, wherein selection ofthe first entry is based on the score value of the first entry.
 37. Thesystem of claim 36, wherein the score value of a given entry is based atleast in part on a specificity of the recording corresponding to thegiven entry.
 38. The system of claim 30, wherein the supplementalcontent is not a pre-recorded response of the character of interest. 39.A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium on whichinstructions are stored, the instructions when executed by one or moreprocessors performs a method for conducting a virtual interactionsession, comprising: receiving from a user device, via a networkconnection, a first user input comprising a question or statementdirected to the character of interest; based on the first user input,identifying the character of interest, from among a plurality ofcharacters, as a character to which the first user input is intended tobe directed; identifying one or more first keywords from the first userinput; accessing a database of entries remote from the user device, eachof the entries corresponding to a respective pre-recorded response ofthe character of interest, at least some of the entries furthercorresponding to supplement content associated with the respectivepre-recorded response, each of the pre-recorded responses and thesupplemental content being stored in a network-coupled storage deviceremote from the user device; selecting, from the database, a first entrycorresponding to a pre-recorded response that is responsive to the firstuser input, wherein the selection of the first entry is based at leastin part on the one or more first keywords, and wherein selection of thefirst entry results in both (i) playback of the first pre-recordedresponse by the user device and (ii) providing the user device withaccess to the supplemental content associated with the firstpre-recorded response; automatically temporarily storing in anetwork-coupled memory remote from the user device one or more secondkeywords derived from at least one of the first user input and the firstpre-recorded response; receiving from the user device, via the networkconnection, a second user input comprising a question or statementdirected to the character of interest, wherein the second user input isreceived during the simulated interaction between the user and thecharacter of interest and after playback of the first recording;identifying one or more third keywords from the second user input; andselecting, from the database of entries, a second entry corresponding toa second pre-recorded response that is responsive to the second userinput, wherein the selection of the second entry results in playback ofthe second pre-recorded response by the user device, and wherein theselection of the second entry is made based at least in part on acombination of at least one of the second keywords and at least one ofthe third keywords.
 40. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readablemedium of claim 39, wherein the instructions, when executed, furtherinstruct the one or more processors to automatically store at least aportion of the first user input, such that the stored portion of thefirst user input can be flagged with an entry that is stored in thedatabase after the virtual interaction session and that corresponds to arecording of the character of interest.